[Stan]

Lots to love about this one and I'm enjoying it more and more. I think the Angelo Badalamenti and Spirit references elsewhere are spot on, plus some Mario 64. It really reminds me of Chocolate Girl, but with a jazzier, mysterious undertone. The bass sounds like the lines on Spirit and those sparkly synths are as close to sound of that album as anything they've done in the last twenty years.

I like the structure of it, too. There is kind of awkward non-transition between the opening segment into the stoops melody and crescendo but it always feels good to drop into it. For me, anyways. I think the stoops section builds really well, not abrasive or out of keeping with the rest of the album, I understand why they toned down the drums. It feels very MPP, like the climax of Also Frightened, euphoric, smothers and envelops you in those synths. I think the vocal melody is good but it never quite lifts off into the original higher auto tuned harmony. On the other hand, that is suggested in the synth chords. I do wish it kicked in once, though. That was would be a good peak to drop off from, kind of like the end of Selfish Gene.

I think this vocaroo sums up my feelings and if anyone wants to paste the second vocal harmony over the original song when it's released be my guest. I have either a heavy cold or covid so if you want to record your own version I won't be offended.

https://voca.ro/1fs1N1F2heRg

Overall, a song I thought they'd probably ruin with a Midnight Special edition but they actually nailed it in another direction. The euphoric waves are different to the more cathartic burst of energy it once had. Dare I say it's more of a prostate type climax than penile.

[Tropic]

Yeah your vocaroo is spot on, I kept waiting for Josh's vocals to go up a gear but they never did. Still, prob the best on the album

Stan wrote:

Dare I say it's more of a prostate type climax than penile.

hahah

[Hellomark]

You beat me to the punch Stan, was thinking about making a thread for this song earlier. One thing I'm not sure if I've seen anyone bring up yet is the guitar in the verses! Such a simple part, just a little added harmony to the bass line but it adds so much. As soon as I heard it I felt that it made the entire thing feel so much jazzier, in this really nice and understated west coast jazz kind of way. Still not 100% sure how I feel about the bridge, trying to reserve judgement til we get the full quality.

[dio]

Yeah this was the one that was most important to me, as the live recordings are very dear 2 my heart. And at first it made me a little nervous but I do in fact love it, and love what they've done.

For one thing the verse is perfect. I can't think of another AC song with that rambling, lyrically dense travelogue kind of thing since Kids on Holiday unless you count the Travel Agent ad energy of Floridada's lyrics (which are actually great just sayin')

The explosion is splendid. I haven't heard them explode like that since In the Flowers and its a different kind of explosion. You could practically hear anything you want in that chorus. And its a living climax... it like starts to peak and then chills back down a little and then REALLY peaks. Genius.

And it is a prostate kind of thing!

[speen]

I adore this song, i think they nailed it

But i just want to say… the official lyrics for the big climax are “ The stoop that you love is fiending for meaning.” What the hell does that mean lol. i always heard “if you can do love, you’ll heal me” which i’ll just pretend to still hear

[Tropic]

Don't sit on your stoop, get moving and experiencing new things

[evan6032]

I love the horns or whatever that is that they added for tension in there as well

[dio]

speen wrote:

I adore this song, i think they nailed it

But i just want to say… the official lyrics for the big climax are “ The stoop that you love is fiending for meaning.” What the hell does that mean lol. i always heard “if you can do love, you’ll heal me” which i’ll just pretend to still hear

Yeah its about like... traveling and stuff so I guess its something about yr home comforts are better off for existing in a context of a wider world. Its grown on me, but ya I was hearing "chew" a lot at first. Now I hear the stoop very clearly.

This song and its comedown PB are pure David Lynch

[foxtrot]

Yeh I see it as a grass is greener type lyric. When you’re traveling you crave the comfort of home and when you’re home you get itchy feet. Only by exploring can we truly appreciate our home/where we’ve come from

[Stan]

I was going to make another vocaroo when I realised this last night but the fuckin high register vocal melody is FUCKING THERE in the Cherokee climax.



Even better, it's much clearer in the full fat wav because the separation is much better. I thought it was a synth or something in the vinyl rip because I could only hear a kind of metallic pad, couple of higher notes tracing the OG Cherokee 19 vocal melody.

Mother fuckers, it is an auto-tuned mother fucking vocal.

It's still subtle no doubt, but it's there enough for you to follow that melodic line and it's partly doubled on the xylophone or whatever. You can hear it very best on the first 'stoops' couplet, when it drops out. Sounds like this, but auto tuned and like someone who can sing falsetto:

https://voca.ro/122kIjSxGBwq

I feel like they included this as a secret gift to the OG Cherokee nutters

[Ethmin]

Turns out this is the best Dave song on the record?

[scrambledgreggs]

[wilandhugs]

The panning on headphones during the climax...

someone call an ambulance

[foxtrot]

love how the panning gets bigger and trippier as the climax builds too. by the end its just a total psychedelic, altered state of consciousness ascension to the heavens

[DownthereSwampthing]

foxtrot wrote:

Yeh I see it as a grass is greener type lyric. When you’re traveling you crave the comfort of home and when you’re home you get itchy feet. Only by exploring can we truly appreciate our home/where we’ve come from

I've been waiting to hear just this. Thank you!

[foxtrot]

From me? From Dave?!

Either way, no worries! Glad you connected

[opposite field]

This song blows me away man. I liked it well enough in the bootlegs but damn they really made this something special. The way the sample comes in feels like nothing they've ever done before.

It's also just kind of a classic Avey love song but also really outward looking. Traveling, learning, taking all of these things back home and trying to make sense of the world in the place where you should feel most comfortable but still missing the places you were traveling to.

I like you take on the climax lyrics foxtrot, to me it also scratches another AC itch of really casual language being used in this more profound way. Dave and Noah have always been really good at that in a way I feel like other bands are just not.

[sound science]

I didn't know what to make of it on first listen, but it clicked BIG TIME the second time through. Potentially my favorite Skiffs track at the moment. It's quite unlike anything else I've heard and some of Avey's best lyric writing in a long time. I haven't fully digested the whole thing yet, but there are certainly some Avey classics in here. I can't wait to continue soaking this one up

[jfw7]

wrote:

jfw7 wrote:

i was just tagging the blast session and noticed that mid-century hawaiian music songwriter + bandleader Harry Owens is credited as a composer on Cherokee on my apple music "preorder'. can anyone think of whether that's more likely to be a sample or a melody/lyrical interpolation?

i'd forgotten about this. it's the sample in the middle, isn't it? i can't figure out what song it is, but harry owens wrote a ton of stuff, including "to you sweetheart, aloha" which gets sampled (and another writing credit) on Lunch Out of Order (sounds like this Sol Ho'opi'i performance? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gQTt9HZe2A)

is that the same song sampled in Cherokee? sorry if i missed discussion on this earlier—searched but couldn't come with anything definitive

reposting this here because TS thread moves too fast

[AmadeooedamA]

I don't know where I stand yet with this song. The ending is the best part of the song. But there are other songs on Time Skiffs I like even more! Maybe i need a re-listen

[destiny]

That is a hawaiin sample on the tune. I caught it and was gobstopped on my 4th or so listen. The rewarding process of listening to AC music. Hear something new everytime. This song stands alongside Fireworks, Rev green, Purple bottle, as amazing album centerpieces.

[rohcti]

The studio version is going to keep growing on me... I feel like I can listen to it over and over... I love this song in all its varieties.

Also how good is the last minute? What a perfect way to end such a legendary song.

[roopn]

This song... The verses are perfect, so dense I still haven't tracked all the lyrics in my head but damn.
Love that the structure of the song mirrors the road trip itself. The verses are all the stuff you're conscious of, taking in experiences travelling around, then the middle build is the part of the drive when you haven't stopped in a while and it all just starts sliding past... Your mind wanders, maybe you dissociate with your body a little, you just become part of everything around you. Then you hit the next town, you snap out of it, the verse comes back. The song's outro looks back on that stretch of road where you lost yourself - you can't even remember it much but it must be there. It just feels so different going through than it does looking back. I love how the outro just slows and slows and slows and slows

[Jam]

The little vibraphone melody sounds like Sesame Street to me

[destiny]

Foccatia!!

[Dusty]

“The stoop that you love is fiending for meaning”

Much has been made about this lyric. I love it. To me, it speaks to the spiritual emptiness of life on colonized land, something that has clearly been on the boys mind recently. The lack of a true cultural and spiritual connection most Americans have to the land they live on/are actively destroying is in my opinion one of the great evils of American society. No wonder then that Cherokee sounds like the Twin Peaks soundtrack, a show where the deep seeded evils of American society are represented by black oils and corn (monoculture)

[Fovrodi]

Damn, well said Dusty!

[dio]

ya cool, that actually convinces me that there's some intentionality behind what avey is writing about/thinking about with Cherokee. On its face its a more simple song about being on the road but its verbose enough 2 read into a bit. Hadn't thought about that line in that way

[roopn]

Great post dusty, excellent analysis!

[captainlunatic]

one of the best on the album and one of the best they've ever done

[nothingmaster]

Dusty wrote:

The lack of a true cultural and spiritual connection most Americans have to the land they live on/are actively destroying is in my opinion one of the great evils of American society.)

Fo sho. All while worshiping the ephemeral. (Treating focaccia like jade)

[archie]

i thought that focaccia line was about high end artisan bakeries. is that a thing in america as mu ch as it is in aus tho?

[foxtrot]

aussies bloody love a focaccia

[hypo's]

Dusty wrote:

“The stoop that you love is fiending for meaning”

Much has been made about this lyric. I love it. To me, it speaks to the spiritual emptiness of life on colonized land, something that has clearly been on the boys mind recently. The lack of a true cultural and spiritual connection most Americans have to the land they live on/are actively destroying is in my opinion one of the great evils of American society. No wonder then that Cherokee sounds like the Twin Peaks soundtrack, a show where the deep seeded evils of American society are represented by black oils and corn (monoculture)

A+

[robgnarr]

Dusty wrote:

“The stoop that you love is fiending for meaning”

Much has been made about this lyric. I love it. To me, it speaks to the spiritual emptiness of life on colonized land, something that has clearly been on the boys mind recently. The lack of a true cultural and spiritual connection most Americans have to the land they live on/are actively destroying is in my opinion one of the great evils of American society. No wonder then that Cherokee sounds like the Twin Peaks soundtrack, a show where the deep seeded evils of American society are represented by black oils and corn (monoculture)

This. And the contradiction of a gas guzzling vehicle taking the name of tribe who lived as one with the land. Definitely a deeper meaning behind the title